Branding is a Big Deal. Nobody Told the Execs at HBO.

What do HBO and Discovery have in common? Nothing, other than a parent company — and, now, a shared streaming service. When I think of HBO, I think of The Sopranos and The Wire; when I think of Discovery, I think of house flipping and Dr. Pimple Popper. HBO is for scripted, “lean in” movies and series, with male-dominated fandoms; Discovery’s niche is “lean back,” “comfort viewing” reality TV, targeted toward women and their varying ‘genredoms.’ (Don’t @ me about it — this is how the networks view themselves and each other.) So what was the parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), thinking when executives cut the “HBO” out of “HBO Max” when adding Discovery+ programming? Apparently JB Perrette, the president and CEO of global streaming and games for WBD, forgot about Cinemax (or “Skinemax,” as it came to be known) when he explained away the name change at an April 12, 2023, press event by saying HBO was “not exactly where parents would eagerly drop off their kids.” I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t leave my kids with “Max,” either.

As a parent and longtime HBO subscriber, I was confused when HBO Max first launched mid-pandemic. ‘There’s HBO, HBO Go, HBO Now, and now HBO Max! Which one has all the shows and movies I want to watch,’ I wondered. ‘Which one(s) are we subscribed to? Are we paying twice or three times for the same thing? Which app(s) do I need to keep on my phone and smart TV?’ Needless to say, this is not the kind of customer experience anyone would appreciate or recommend. And I am no less confused today, learning that the new “Max” will replace them all. 

My family subscribes to Discovery+ and HBO Max, so what does this mean for us? They already quietly raised the price for ad-free HBO Max in January, but claim the Discovery+ plan pricing will not change and any new Max pricing won’t impact legacy subscribers. If the combined Max is getting all the best Discovery+ content, though, why would we continue to pay for a standalone Discovery service? And, again, what happens to all those legacy apps? What about our saved preferences? How about the last place we left off when watching our favorite film or series? 

Maybe you’ll be satisfied with the answers to the FAQs on max.com (which sounds more like a bodybuilding website than that of a premium streaming service), but for me the site looks like a sloppy throwaway, designed off a template, meant merely to assuage the fears of current HBO subscribers and distract from previous WBD blunders. Showcasing popular past productions and promising “an average of more than 40 new titles and TV show seasons every month” doesn’t distract from the fact that this name change, like the others, does nothing to benefit the customer. 

In fact, if you’re a current HBO Max subscriber (like us), your access to 4K Ultra HD content will be lost when the transition takes effect in late May 2023 — unless of course you agree to pay more for the new top tier, Max Ultimate.

Although there’s no debating that we all have way too many apps and subscribe to way too many services (I mean, this predicament birthed an entire new industry: subscription management), combining two popular and disparate platforms isn’t necessarily the answer. Nor is removing any reference to the “most iconic, trailblazing brand in entertainment,” built over a half century. Even with plunging post-COVID streaming numbers and a looming recession causing consumer cost-cutting. 

Which is why I don’t think this latest corporate reconfiguration was even meant to improve the lives or viewing experiences of HBO’s or Discovery’s core audiences. Instead, it appears WBD is doing some major internal housekeeping that will directly and significantly impact the rest of us outside. After all, Perrette even admitted, though Max is a (heavily connoted) “common word” that would “sort of maybe [be] less ownable,” the team pushed forward anyway because, “when… we found ourselves talking about the service, the shorthand was always ‘Max.’”

Um, has anyone told the WBD C-suite that internal naming mechanisms almost never translate outside the organization? And were there no branding or PR experts on staff to inform the boss that killing an iconic brand name would require more of an explanation than “we just felt like, that was sort of not necessary?”

What!? Keeping the HBO name was sort of not necessary!? Are we even reading this correctly!? Al Ries is rolling over in his grave.

Only time will tell whether this post-lockdown rebrand will be a boon or catastrophe for the bastion of high-quality entertainment formerly known as HBO (and its parent company). But I can promise that without the right type and frequency of advertising to the right audiences, the lack of a clearly defined and distinct HBO channel/streaming service/app will cause the conglomerate’s new-subscriber rate to plummet.

Image Credit

Photo by Maciej Drążkiewicz on Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/photos/HnDjc-mH9sc